Danny Rohl opens up on Ike Ugbo situation after £2.5m Sheffield Wednesday move | OneFootball

The forward hasn't had the perfect start to the season after making his return to the club.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl has backed £2.5 million signing Ike Ugbo to return to form after a barren run to start his second spell with the club.

A lot was made of the need for the Owls to go out and sign a goalscoring striker, like the one they had in the previous campaign who helped them to avoid relegation. Well that's exactly what they did.

Wednesday secured the re-signing of Ugbo after the Canadian forward's short-term loan spell ended at the conclusion of the prior campaign. The reported fee that they paid to French club Troyes in order to sign him: £2.5 million, according to The Star.

He was a saviour for the club last season and quickly became a favourite with the club's supporters, who were more than happy to see him return. Unfortunately, though, he's not been able to carry on the form that he had at the end of last season, starting the new one with no goals in nine appearances in the Championship.

The 26-year-old had a good chance to get off the mark on Saturday when Wednesday hosted Burnley, but he squandered that opportunity and they ended up losing 2-0.

Despite another game without a goal, his boss' belief in him hasn't been damaged.

Danny Rohl backs Ike Ugbo to return to his goalscoring ways

Rohl says that he knows that the multi-million pound signing will find form in front of goal again, and has insisted that, even though Ugbo has struggled and received some criticism from supporters since sealing his return to Hillsborough, the blame for any poor results cannot solely be shouldered by him.

The young German coach told The Star after the loss to the Clarets: "We know what he can do and we will keep going on this. We know the moment will come and he will score.

"You know as a striker it is always hard when you don't score and today he had a big chance - but this is football. I think this is our job: we stay together. We win together, we lose together and we improve together. We will come through and the momentum will come back of course."

Wednesday haven't been as clinical as they would have liked to have been so far this season, which can be at least partially attributed to the lack of goals coming from Ugbo and the other forwards at the club. Barry Bannan and Josh Windass are the current joint-top scorers in the league with two each.

They can't continue to rely on the likes of Bannan to be one of their main attacking outlets, even with his newfound freedom to go forward that has been allowed by Shea Charles' presence in the XI. The diagnosis from the boss on how to be better in front of goal is a simple one: fashion better opportunities.

"I think what we can do is create more and more chances," Rohl stated. "This is what I can do with the players and when we look back since I arrived, we came many times to this topic. If we create more and more chances we will have a better chance to score.

"Today we had a better xG than them but the result is all that is important and the result is 2-0 to Burnley."

Ike Ugbo needs a confidence boost

It's a cliché that's probably overused in football, but, for strikers, the key to regaining confidence and form can really be as simple as getting one goal in a game, even if it's not the cleanest of finishes.

Seeing the ball go into the back of the net, no matter how or when it happens, can remove that second guessing that can sometimes plague forwards.

It feels like that's what Ugbo needs, just one to go in. It would be handy if Wednesday had some less important trophy games coming up in which they could maybe use the Canadian and try and get him some goals against worse opposition, but that's not the case.

He showed last season that he has the ability to be a Championship goalscorer. For the Owls, it's now a question of how can they get him back to those levels. Restoring that belief will be key.